Category Archives: Multiple Man

As a longtime comic book reader, I have my personal list of favorite characters. Everybody has one, right? Those characters that you love to read about and see pop up in new comics. For a lot of people, their favorite characters are big name superheroes, like Spider-Man or Batman. For me, I tend to prefer the smaller supporting characters. That’s just what happens when you read a lot of comics and are exposed to a lot of characters.

In the past two years and a couple months, nearly every character on that list has been killed. Several characters in my Honorable Mentions addendum have been killed. And a couple other characters I love have either been killed or nearly killed within this time frame.

I don’t…I don’t know what’s going on.

I don’t presume to think this is some sort of targeted attack on yours truly. I think this is just the unfortunate cost of loving minor comic book characters, the sorts of characters that can be chewed up and spit out as any given writer sees fit.

But damn, this has been pretty hard on the soul.

And I guess I just felt like listing them off, as if that would help me somehow. Let’s start with my favorite characters list:

This one was really disappointing. He made a surprise appearance in Extermination after being out of comics for a few years. I knew from the moment he appeared that he probably wouldn’t survive the series, and I had to wait several months for those fears to be confirmed.

Phil was my favorite superhero as a kid, and the first comic I actively started collecting on my own, issue-by-issue. I endured years of him being transformed into an unrepentant villain before they finally put him out of his misery.

Thankfully, his death was a fake out. He survived and returned to service shortly thereafter. He’s even gone back to being just “Robin” instead of the far more ridiculous “Red Robin”. So there’s at least one happy ending in this list.

That’s it for my list of favorites. I listed “Robin” on that list as more of the concept of the character. Damian Wayne, the current Robin, is still alive…but if I’m being honest, he hasn’t really been ‘Robin’ in a long time. The concept of ‘Batman and Robin’ as a team is pretty dead. So does that count? Not to mention that Damian was killed in early 2013. So for a short while there, Robin was dead.

The Spot is also still alive, but he’s the one character I would probably take off my list of favorites. I’ve always been a big fan of the Spot, and will always be a big fan of the Spot, but there are characters I like better. Which is probably why he’s still alive.

I’m not too sure about this one. It does appear that Venom kills the Scorpion, but then Scorpion has been showing up in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man recently. I may have to check and see if there’s an explanation.

This is the most recent, and inspired this list. Strong Guy is Multiple Man’s best friend, and one of my favorite duos in comics. And now they’re both dead, and neither one particularly cares about the other these days. So just bleakness all around.

That happened a year after I started my blog and he’s still dead. The recent X-Men Gold comic introduced a new Avalanche, but I didn’t read it, and I’m pretty sure the character didn’t stick around. The X-Men have since ignored the new Pyro also, and he joined the X-Men towards the end of that comic. So that’s not looking good.

That’s the major list. Eight of my favorite comic book characters have been killed since I started this blog, most of them within the past two years or so. And only one of them has been properly ‘resurrected’ in that time. It’s just a little soul-crushing.

I don’t have any larger point to make. And I’m largely just whining. But c’mon. There’s only so much my soul can take. Is it really so wrong to have favorite comic book characters? Is there somebody specifically targeting me?

When will it stop?

All I really know is that Beta Ray Bill had better be very careful now that he’s a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s almost no way he’s going to survive that comic.

Woohoo! Good news everybody, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is awesome! Maybe not as surprisingly magical as the first film, but no less funny, touching, colorful and just plain fun. I need more comics to be exactly like the LEGO movies.

Instead, we get comics that are fun in their own rights, like Champions, X-23 and Young Justice. Comic Book of the Week goes to another stellar issue of The Green Lantern, a comic that is definitely living up to the hype.

Spoken like a true wildcard

Meanwhile, I read the first proper issue of the Age of X-Man and it was fine. It was about the basic X-Men team and it was about what I expected. The twist of the universe has already been revealed, and we know these are our regular main characters living in a made-up fantasy. So there’s no real sense of permanence and stakes, as far as I’m concerned. They’ll tell whatever story they need to tell, and then we’ll move on.

I’ve said this several times on this blog: Multiple Man is my all-time favorite comic book character. And I should be thrilled that he’s back in action. Not only did he have a recent Multiple Man comic all to himself, but he’s in the current Uncanny X-Men storyline.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t really Multiple Man.

The current creators working on the X-Men found a workaround to put a simulacrum in place. And based on this week’s new issue of Uncanny X-Men, they can’t even get that right.

Help him, Apocalypse!

Quick recap: Jamie Madrox died several years ago during the M-Pox storyline, killed by the Inhuman Terrigen Mists. In the recent Multiple Man comic, it was revealed that one of his duplicates had gone into hiding years ago, working on a serum to separate duplicates from Madrox’s umbrella. Then through a series of time traveling hijinks, all of the various Multiple Man duplicates died…except for one. And he took the serum, which somehow granted him the crown of “Jamie Prime”.

For some reason, only Jamie Prime can make duplicates now. Those duplicates can no longer produce their own duplicates.

C’mon Nate, surely you’re aware of my brand new status quo change!

That’s not how Multiple Man’s powers work. So either the current creators don’t know that or it’s a change brought about by this false duplicate “rebirth”. I’ve read everything that the new Madrox has appeared in so far and the change in his powers has never been mentioned, so…

But yeah, his powers are different now, reinforcing the fact that this isn’t really Multiple Man back from the dead. It’s a weird, mutated duplicate simply living as Jamie Madrox.

That stinks.

To make matters even worse, the current creators don’t seem to understand the character at all. They seem really into the idea that Jamie Madrox is an incompetent coward.

And an alcoholic, apparently

Like, it’s mentioned twice in the new Uncanny X-Men #9.

Now they’re just being mean

Where is this coming from? And from Kitty and Storm of all people? Did nobody read the 100+ issue X-Factor series? Jamie Madrox was a team leader, and was a prominent X-Men supporting character for years. He’s never been a coward and he’s never been incompetent. Those aren’t his character traits.

It doesn’t matter in the long run. This is just one guy whining on his blog, and that’s really all I’m doing, whining. I get that. But it’s my blog, it’s my favorite comic book character, and I felt like whining about it. So take all of this with a grain of salt.

Comic books move ever onward. Someday the real Multiple Man will come back from the dead. Cyclops died in the exact same way in the exact same story, and he’s coming back. I’m sure Multiple Man will be back too, eventually.

Like this:

Merry Christmas everybody! Or at least in a few days for those of us who celebrate. I’ve got a long weekend of hanging out with family ahead of me, and hopefully some sweet presents!

We had some boffo comic book presents this week, with new issues of Aquaman, Batman, Uncanny X-Men, West Coast Avengers and more! Comic Book of the Week goes to an absolutely delightful Runaways Christmas special!

Also, watch Runaways season 2 on Hulu!

Meanwhile, how about that Aquaman movie? Was that insanely cool or what? I can’t remember a movie with that level of size and scale, and who actually pulled it off. So much fun! Such madness!

Have you heard the sad news? The beloved G. Willow Wilson will finally be leaving Ms. Marvel early next year! It’s a sad shame. She wrote a great comic! And I haven’t been all that wowed with her Wonder Woman…

But we’ve got some goodies this week, including Unstoppable Wasp, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Uncanny X-Men! How’s that for alliteration? Comic Book of the Week goes to the latest issue of Go Go Power Rangers, because I’m feeling generous and really enjoyed the issue-ending cliffhanger.

The kiss is fun too!

Meanwhile, as per friend-of-the-site xmenxpert’s request, I went back and read the first issue of Ironheart. It was fine, with some parts stronger than others. Generally well-written all around, with fantastic art. But it only emphasized the things I don’t particularly like about Riri Williams. And that’s on me. I’ll give it a few more tries to see if I stick with it or not.

In related news, I also skipped the first issue of the new Miles Morales comic this week. I was meaning to read it and add it to my review pile, but this was a busier week than I’d planned. I’ll get around to reading it.